Two issues with Cyclic

1. It won't let me save! I tried saving and it appeared to have saved a .json file, but when I tried to load the file, it was empty. Sure enough, inspecting the file in a text editor, it's just an empty JSON template

2. When I try to load my VSTis within cyclic, it crashes. I have a lot of different plug-ins, and I'm assuming one of them is causing it to crash. Is there a way of telling what VSTi is causing it to crash? I get a "buffer overrun" error.

I'm running Windows, by the way.

Thanks,

Michael

Comments

1) I can't reproduce this (on Win 7). Are you sure that you set some presets (shift-click on the little dots in the Presets section) before saving? The save function is meant to save the Presets - maybe that wasn't clear?

2) The application shows the plugin that it is currently scanning on the startup screen - that should give you a clue around which one in your long list it is having problems with (it might be the one after the one it's scanning). If that goes too fast, you could also try looking at the Plugin_cache file located at /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/AppData/Roaming/Cyclic/ (the AppData folder is normally hidden, you might have to change your system settings to see hidden folders). The plugin it is having trouble with might be the last one listed, or the one just after that one.

In general, I apologize for the app's lack of gracefully dealing with some plugins it's having trouble with. It's an area I hope to improve on in the future. It's largely due to the Max underpinnings of the application.

1. I had assumed that when the application launched I would immediately be editing the first preset. I didn't realize I had to shift-click to store it, and THEN click "save." Now that I've tried it that way, it worked fine. I guess I could read the manual

2. I don't have a plugin_cache file in the location you mentioned. Also, when it starts scanning, it does not show a splash screen. I think it's because it start scanning immediately when I set the plugin folder, not waiting until the next time I launch the application.

The plugin issue is less of an issue for me because I am having success using it with a midi loopback program (I'm using loopMIDI, which allows you to have a number of MIDI devices instead of just the one you get with the free loopbe).

I did have one random crash using it last night, I'm hoping it was a fluke. We'll see.

I have one small suggestion -- I would like it if the program would warn me if I'm trying to quit without saving. Last night I closed the sequencer window and lost some work (closing windows is force of habit, I do it with VSTs all the time but they still stay loaded in my host).

I absolutely LOVE the functionality of the sequencer, it's just the right mix of giving me control yet leading me to unexpected places. The user interface is just beautiful. I also like that I can enlarge the interface, because it can be tiresome to look at very small controls. So in my view it's worth putting up with some of the other quirks because I can already see great potential to do things with Cyclic that I don't think I could arrive at any other way.

2. Puzzling that you don't have a plugin_cache file. I wonder if it's not getting written because it's crashing before it has a chance to... And re: the splash screen, yes, I should have been clearer - that only shows when you start the app up.

If you have any repeat of that random crash, please let me know!

I'll consider the warning before quit - it's not a request I've had till now, and not sure how easy or not it might be to intercept the operating system's quit command, but will look into it.